Annual UK CPI came in at 9.0% due to spiralling electricity and oil and gas price rises. The FTSE100 was the best performing equity market, attributed to its heavier weighting in energy stocks. The Bank of England raised interest rates to their highest level since 2009, but still warned of a possible recession. As focus turned away from inflation to slowing growth, gilts had their best performance since March 2020. UK GDP rose by 1.3% in the first quarter 2022, vs -0.9% in Q4 21. Up 0.4% (UK All Share).

UK equities rose just slightly in July, but the strength of Sterling against the US Dollar and Euro meant large cap stocks with overseas earnings performed poorly, suppressing the main index. It was a volatile month, and markets sold off in the first part of the month due to the spread of the delta variant spread and the slowing growth outlook…